


Salem in the wonderful land of Remnant

by FalseRobot



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Attempt at Humor, Crack?, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 12:18:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14080803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalseRobot/pseuds/FalseRobot
Summary: Salem dies and is reincarnated into familiar yet vastly different Remnant where she navigates the twist and turns of this Remnant and her new life as a Beacon Academy student.





	1. The end of a story

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: This story is a side project that I admittedly started before I started writing Thick Headed Fools but was shelved after encountering writer’s block early on. Since this is a side project, I’ll be working on it when I have time or when I hit a roadblock with T.H.F and need inspiration. So don’t expect semi-regular updates like Thick Headed Fools.
> 
> MAJOR WARNING: Everyone is out of character!

The Dark Queen Salem, who is the Mother of all Grimm, could feel it in her bones that the end was coming as she sits on her throne. Outside her throne room, the sounds of battle grows closer and closer as the Silver Eyed Hero, her friends, and the armies of the Kingdoms of Remnant assault her castle in the final battle of a long, tiring war the two sides has waged for the past 6 years. The dark queen lets out an exhausted sigh as she feels the effect of the constant use of her semblance spawning a constant stream of her Grimm to hold the assaulting armies at bay.

 

So, she patiently waits for the Silver-Eyed hero to arrive so that they can finally bring an end to this long war of theirs. And soon enough, the door leading into the Dark Queen’s throne room flies open and the battle weary Silver-Eyed hero, Ruby Rose, marches in with her high impact sniper scythe, Crescent Rose, ready for the final confrontation between the two of them. Ruby’s arrival brings a faint smile to Salem’s face as her plan finally comes to fruition.

 

“Salem!” Ruby calls out. “Your reign of terror ends here!”

 

“Oh my, what a bold statement coming from someone who came here alone.” Salem purrs. “Let’s keep it that way shall we?”

 

Concentrating her semblance into her right hand and with a wave of said hand, Salem expands her shadow and small group of Ursa Majors climb out of her enlarged shadow. The group immediately rush past Ruby and go through the throne room doors leading into the hallway just beyond before Ruby has a chance to do anything to slow them down. Then, Salem uses her semblance to slam shut the throne room doors, capturing Ruby’s attention as Salem gets off her throne readying her staff.

 

Ruby and Salem get into their battle stances in anticipation for their final confrontation as Ruby’s eyes begin to glow dimly. They begin to slowly circle each other like wary predators, looking for an opening in each other’s defenses. Like a starting pistol, a large explosion somewhere outside shakes the castle violently, signaling Ruby and Salem to charge at each other.

 

Ruby swings her scythe diagonally upwards as Salem swings her staff downwards, igniting a flurry of trading blows and dodging said blows by a hairsbreadth. Minutes crawl by with both sides refusing to relent in their assault upon each other. When suddenly Salem delivers a powerful kick that sends Ruby flying backwards into the throne room door just as one of Ruby’s horizontal slashes harmlessly cuts open Salem’s robe in the stomach area, leaving behind a thin cut that quickly heals.

 

Salem takes a step forward to press her current advantage over Ruby but a wave of noticeable exhaustion washes over her as large batch of various Grimm suddenly spawns somewhere outside in one of the remaining spawning pools. Ruby, noticing Salem’s pause, takes a moment to catch her breath before readying herself once more for another clash between the two of them.

 

Salem takes the initiative and dashes towards Ruby, swinging her weapon horizontally which Ruby easily parries. Ruby counterattacks by rotating her scythe so that the rifle barrel is pressed against Salem’s abdomen and fires off a dust round. Salem staggers backwards with a hiss just moments after the bullet passes through her cleanly.

 

Ruby’s silver eyes begin to glow brighter and brighter as she closes the distance between her and the distracted Salem with her scythe ready for another strike. Ruby unleashes a semblance fueled tornado of rose petals and various slashes that Salem can barely defend against in her exhausted state. The tornado dissipates moments later with Ruby cutting off Salem’s left arm at the elbow, causing Salem’s staff to fly from her remaining hand.

 

As Salem staggers backwards even more while Ruby takes another moment to catch her before charging towards the defenseless Salem, unleashing the full power of the maiden’s Silver Eyes. Seeing Ruby charge forward, filling the room with blinding silvery white light, Salem smirks weakly at the sight knowing what’s coming next. So instead of raising her guard up in a feeble attempt to defend herself, Salem drops it completely to accept her fate.

 

When the throne room completely fills with the silvery white light, Crescent Rose’s blade quickly buries itself into the left side of Salem’s torso and the world around her goes black. She feels like she is floating inside of the black void when a white light appears ahead of her.

 

“My wonderful husband, my beautiful children, I’m finally coming home.” She softly says to herself, as she lets herself float towards the light.

 

She floats towards the light when the sounds of beeping, a woman screaming in pain, and garbled voices can be heard as she gets closer and closer. She is forced to close her eyes as she is blinded by the light when she reaches the light source. Opening her eyes, Salem feels incredibly smaller and sees a doctor in operating room garb, lifting her up to inspect her thoroughly.

 

“Mr. and Mrs. Pine, you now have a baby daughter who is a… hermaphrodite.” The doctor hesitantly announces, unsure of the reaction he is going to get but the news causes a pair of audible excited gasps somewhere behind Salem. The doctor wraps the Salem in a blanket and carefully walks her over to the side of a bed where she sees an exhausted, sweating Glynda Goodwitch lying there with a big smile on her face.

 

“Oscar, she’s beautiful.” Glynda gasps as she takes Salem and gently cradles her in her arms.

 

“That she is, Glynda.” An all too familiar voice replies.

 

“What shall we name her, Oscar?” Glynda asks softly a she shifts slightly to give the source of the voice a better view of Salem and Salem is shocked to see Ozpin looking down at with a proud, loving smile on his face.

 

“Dorothy.” Ozpin softly says. “Dorothy Pine.”

 

Just as the baby Salem opens her mouth to scream in shock and terror, a much older pajama clad Salem to suddenly sit up disoriented, gasping for breath with the memory fresh in her mind. She lets out a deep sigh when she sees that she’s in her bedroom of her parent’s apartment in Vale. Salem scowls in annoyance when she discovers that it is currently a little after 12 AM in the morning according to her alarm clock.

 

Salem waits a couple of minutes to allow her eyes to adjust to the moonlit room. She scans her room to find out that it’s an ordinary teenage girl’s bedroom of a life she thought she would never have again complete with her high school diploma from Morse Combat Academy, a picture frame of a happy 9 year old Salem standing in between her proud parents, another picture frame of a proud 14 year old Salem standing over a torn up mecha-beowolf with its metal skeleton, various electrical wires, and various mechanical inner workings exposed.

 

And sitting on her desk is her weapon of choice, The Witch’s Boom-stick, a 6 foot staff that allows her to channel her semblance with ease that has a fangtian ji spearhead (a spear with two crescent shaped blades on the sides of the spear tip) on one end and a built-in shotgun on the other end. Also the staff has the ability to shorten itself to be used as a one handed axe/wand and to make storage/travelling easier.

 

In the corner of her eye, the glint of a mirror catches her attention as headlights from a car passing by her bedroom window briefly illuminate the room.

 

Looking at the mirror, memories of her old appearance in her previous life as the Dark Queen flash through head when she sees that she was once again an 18 years old. Her appearance was mostly the same except for: her skin was a natural shade of creamy white color instead an unnatural shade of ashen white, her irises were a beautiful mix of sapphire blue with slivers of emerald green accentuated by white sclera instead of the crimson red irises accentuated by black sclera, her straight silver hair that flowed down past her waist is now platinum blonde, and gone were the black veins that had once covered her skin.

 

Salem turns her gaze away from reflection in the mirror towards her window and looks out it forlornly. Outside in the distance she sees tower of Beacon academy lit up like the namesake of the school and high above it in the sky, is a full un-shattered moon watching over Vale. She lays back down onto her bed with a sigh and closes her eyes, hoping for a better night’s sleep while the memories of her old life fades into the back of her mind.

 

“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”


	2. A Gathering of Characters

A gentle gust of wind blows through the house as Salem sits on the windowsill watching her son and daughter play with each other in the backyard. She takes along sip of her tea letting the smell of pancakes, bacon, and eggs float in from the kitchen moments witnessing her son run away from his sister after pulling some sort of prank on her.

She sighs deeply when she sees her son trip over himself somehow into a puddle of mud with his sister not too far behind him. She quickly drinks the rest of her tea to mentally prepare herself for the inevitable bath time that is to come. Salem gets up off the windowsill and makes her way to the bathroom to fill the bathtub with water.

“Breakfast is almost ready!” her husband calls out from the kitchen, bringing a smile to Salem’s face.

Once the tub is filled, Salem makes her way to the back door and calls out to her children. “Arnold! Sarah! It's time to come back inside!”

“Yay” the twins call out as they stop what they are doing and immediately rush over to the back door.

Salem catches the children just before they enter the house. “But first you two need a bath.”

“Aw~” The twins whine. “But Dorothy~! It’s time to wake up.”

“What?” Salem immediately responds with a blink. She blinks again and sees the ceiling of a bedroom and to her left, a man wearing t-shirt with steaming coffee cup on the front of it accompanied by the caption: Mug Life.

“I said it’s to wake up, Dorothy.” The man calmly says while taking a step backwards. “Breakfast is ready.”

Salem blinks for a third time to realize that she’s in her bedroom of her parent’s Vale apartment and that her father just woke her up.

“Okay Oz- er… dad. She replies groggily, earning a raised eyebrow from her father. “I’ll be up in a couple minutes.”

“Please don’t take too long” Ozpin chides. “Remember that you have a big day ahead of you.”

“Already?” Salem groans.

“Yes already.” Ozpin huffs. “Come on now, get up. You know how your mother is when it comes to students who are late for their first day of Beacon Academy.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Salem grumbles as she slowly rolls at of bed as Ozpin leaves the room. 

Once she is standing, she shuffles towards the kitchen trying to delay the inevitable. As she approaches the kitchen, the smells like of freshly made pancakes, eggs, and bacon drift into her nose and motivates her to pick up her pace to a walk. Arriving at her destination, her stomach grumbles at the sight of food and she quickly makes her plate before heading to the dining room table. She arrives and sits down just as the morning news intro begins playing on the living room TV before revealing the news anchors.

"Good Morning Vale~. This is Melanie..." The dark haired newscaster announces.

"And Militiades..." The other similar looking newscaster announces.

"Malachite of the Vale News Network, bringing you latest stories of what is happening around the world." Melanie and Militiades announce at the same time.

The camera focuses on Melanie. "This year's Vytal festival is going to be the first time the fifth and newest huntsman academy, Bastion Academy located in Menagerie, is going to participate since its founding 5 years ago. Its headmaster, Sienna Khan, said in a statement that she is proud that her academy finally has a chance to participate after all of the trouble the academy has dealt with."

The camera pans over to Militiades. "Speaking of trouble, White Fang activity in Vale has increased since the announcement with reports of crimes against various SDC business related ventures have been reported. CEO Willow Schnee announced at a press conference that the SDC security forces will be working the VPD, the Atlesian army, and Beacon Academy to ensure the safety of the festival."

"In other news..." Salem tunes out the rest of the news broadcast as she finishes eating her breakfast before getting up and head towards the kitchen to put her dishes in the dishwasher. Checking the time on the nearest clock, she hurries off to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. 

Once she is showered, she heads back towards her bedroom to get dressed in her usual outfit consisting of loose black cargo pants, knee high combat boots, an untucked grey suit vest with a white button up shirt underneath, and skinny black tie. Then she proceeds to spawn two small pairs of Nucklevee arms to assist her in putting up her into her signature regal-looking, spider-like hair bun.

"Dorothy, are you ready to go?" Ozpin calls out from the living room.

"Yeah I am." Salem replies as she looks over one last time in the mirror. As she leaves her room, she grabs her painted witch's hat that her mother gave her for birthday and hurries down the hallway towards the front door.

"Are you for your first year at Beacon Academy?" Ozpin asks just as Salem reaches the front door where all of her pre-packed suitcases of belongings are.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Salem sighs, grabbing a suitcase. 

A couple trips to and from the apartment later, the suitcases were safely into their car and soon they were on their way to the nearest airship station with a route to Beacon. As Ozpin drives them through the city, Salem lays her head against the passenger side window, barely paying attention the radio as an advertisement for a grand opening of some fast food restaurant called The General’s Atlesian Fried Chicken comes on.

Half an hour later, they arrive at the airship station just as a passenger airship floats down to land at a terminal. After finding the closest parking spot, a trolley to move the suitcases, and a speedy check; Ozpin and Salem find themselves standing in front of the security checkpoint leading into the concourse.

"Well Dorothy, I believe this where we part ways for a while." Ozpin announces, getting teary eyed. "I'm going miss you."

"You know the cafe is an airship ride away from Beacon, right Dad?"

"I know." Ozpin replies, pulling Salem into a loving hug. "But I am still going to worry."

"I'll be as careful as I can be."

"And try not lose control of your semblance."

"Dad, that only happened ONCE."

"So far and don't forget the damage that it caused as a result." Ozpin admonishes. "So please promise me that you'll at least try not to lose control of your semblance.”

Salem sighs in defeat, knowing that she isn't going to win this conversation as she returns the hug. "Yeah... I promise, dad. But I can make no guarantee that I'll be able to keep it though."

"That's more than enough Doroythy." Ozpin says, tightening the hug. "Thank you."

"Your welcome, dad." Salem says, breaking the hug. "And while I'm gone, try not to go too crazy with being the 'wise and mysterious owner of the Emerald City Coffee shop' around the new girl. You know how long it took us to find a replacement after the latest Mr. Oobleck incident."

"I'll try." Ozpin replies, sighing regretfully at the memory of the previous waitress quitting because she could no longer deal with the fast paced author and the admittedly vague advice Ozpin gave her on how to deal with him. 'At least he isn't lugging that typewriter around with him anymore." 

He takes out and looks at his pocket watch to check the time. "Well, you better get going. Your flight is leaving in an hour."

"I guess so." Salem says before heading towards the end of the line. "I'll see you around."

"You too." Ozpin proudly replies before heading back to the car.

Slogging through the security check point, hurrying through the concourse, and only getting slightly lost; Salem arrives at the gate where the passenger airship to Beacon sits just as they announce that it is time for the passengers to begin boarding. She curses underneath her breath and rushes over to the check in desk, getting checked in quickly along with a quick lecture about being on time before she rushes over to the gate and boards just as quickly.

Once onboard, Salem calms herself and begins searching the nearest passenger compartment for an open seat to secure herself for the airship takes off. A couple minutes of fruitless searching later, she spots an open seat next to a person who is wearing an oversized red hoodie with the hood up, concealing their face and is looking really nervous about something.

"Uh... excuse me, is this seat open?" Salem hesitantly asks, startling the person. The person quickly looks up and Salem recognizes the half of the person’s emerald eyed face that she can see from somewhere but is not quite sure where.

“Huh?” the person asks, revealing themselves as female.

”Is the seat next to you open?” Salem asks again. She doesn’t the girl from her new memories so she recalls her previous life’s memories and thinks she recognizes the girl as Pyrrha Nikos from Cinder’s reports.

“Oh. Yes it its!” Pyrrha(?) quickly says, scooting away a little bit.

“Are you ok?” Salem asks as she sits down.

“I’m… just a little nervous about the takeoff.” Pyrrha(?) says a little too quickly. “I had a bad experience as a child and I haven’t quite gotten over it yet.”

“Oh dear, I’m sorry to that.” Salem replies with a little concern, knowing that Pyrrha(?) is clearing lying but she decides drop the subject anyways.

“Thank you.” Pyrrha(?) quietly says, with a small smile on her face as she turns away from Salem.

A couple minutes later, a small group of stewardesses comes into the compartment and begins making sure everyone is strapped in and secure. Once they’re done with their checks, they move onto the next compartment as the airship’s engines begin to spool up.

“Ladies and Gentleman, This is your captain speaking.” The intercom announces. “We are about to take off from the terminal. So please make sure all loose items are secured and please remain seated until we say it is safe to move about the airship.” A pair of stewards comes into the compartment as the captain explains what to do in an emergency with the two stewards miming what to do.

When the captain announces that it is safe to move about the airship, Salem unbuckles herself and goes to stand but a pair of orange and white figures rush past her. Turning towards them, she sees the pair quickly enter a lavatory followed by the sound of one of them puking their guts out.

Salem gets up and stretches her legs before weaving through the other passengers. Along the way, she happens to pass by the lavatory the two figures in time to catch part of their conversation.

"So Romana, what did we learn from this?" A male asks as the other person empties their stomach again.

"Not to celebrate my enrollment to Beacon all night long with alcohol you hid specifically to prevent this situation happening, dad." Romana weakly replies.

"That's my girl." The dad replies. "Now let's get you cleaned up."

Salem doesn't hear the rest of their conversation as she moves away from the lavatory in an attempt to get out of the crowded passenger compartment. Later, she makes her way towards the observation deck to get a good look of what this version of Beacon looks since for all of her current life, she has only seen it from afar or in advertisements.

Entering the observation deck, Salem is surprised to find it nearly empty save for few people scattered about. Moving further in, she spots a familiar pair of people next a bay window talking to each other about something. Moving closer allows Salem to recognize them as Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long but something feels off about. 

Inconspicuously inspecting Ruby as she moves to a window that is away from them along with a good view, she sees that Ruby is almost as tall as Yang, is wearing her Slayer outfit instead of the outfit from Cinder's initial report of her, and is missing her red hooded cape while wearing a vaguely familiar belt. Yang on the other hand looks exactly the same as Cinder's initial report except for the pair of dragon like horns growing from the sides of her head.

Looking out the window, she sees Beacon Academy slowly getting closer and bigger. In the reflection of the window, Salem sees Ruby taking multiple subtle glances in her general direction as if she recognizes Salem. Salem brushes these glances off, knowing that is impossible because Salem has never met Ruby before in this new life. 

Soon, the captain announces over the intercom that passengers and crew members should find the nearest seat to buckle themselves into due to arriving at Beacon Academy in a little bit. Salem heads back towards the observation deck entrance and passes by Ruby who gives her a strange look of recognition that Salem doesn't see.

Once the airship lands safely at Beacon, everyone unbuckled themselves, stand up, and slowly make their way off the airship while grabbing whatever carry on they brought with them. As Salem waits for an opening to get up, she sees an excited Cinder strut past her, humming. Unsure of what she saw, Salem gets up and joins the rest of the passengers trying to get off the airship at the same time.

Eventually, Salem nears the exit of the airship when suddenly a girly scream is let loose. Turning to the source, Salem sees a blue eyed boy with short brown in a suit of knight armor, cowering before a blue eyed girl with short brown hair in a sleeveless jacket who waving an animal themed hand puppet in front of the boy.

Salem recognizes the girl from somewhere in her past life but she doesn't dwell on it since the line in front of her begins moving again. After a few minutes of inching her way towards the exit, Salem finally exits the airship and makes her towards the auditorium where her mother is to give a welcome speech to all of the potential new students. As she nears the auditorium's entrance, she is suddenly pushed into a secluded spot near the entrance and right into a wall by someone.

"What was that for?" Salem asks to whoever pushed her. Turning around, she discovers Ruby glaring at her.

"H- Have we met before?" Salem asks, feigning non-recognition while nervously sweating a little bit.

"Yes we have at your castle during the final battle of the war you started." Ruby sternly replies, catching Salem off guard with her unexpected answer. Salem recovers quickly and notices that Ruby has pale gold irises instead of silver irises like she had in their original world.

"You remember?" Salem inquires.

"Of course I remember." Ruby confidently replies. "You had some sort of foul magic that allowed you to escape our original world via reincarnation so you can begin plotting Remnant's destruction once again and I just happen to get caught up in it."

Salem blinks a few times at what Ruby said, unsure what to say. Ruby leans back a bit and crosses her arms with confidence look clear on her face. "Too shocked to respond now that your evil plans have been exposed?" 

Salem nervously rubs the back of head. "Uh... I don't have plans for such a thing nor do I any reasons to do so."

"Bullshit. Then why did you reincarnate?" Ruby angrily ask as her belt quickly unfurls from around Ruby's waist, revealing itself as a scorpions tail and stabs the wall behind Salem, missing her head by an inch.

"Look Ruby, I know I don't deserve this life after all the things I did in our previous life and I didn’t for this either. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to take advantage of this surprise second chance and try not to cause history repeat itself." Salem pleads.

Ruby opens her to retort but a very familiar voice cuts her off. "Ah there you are, Dorothy."

Salem and Ruby turn to face the voice and see Glynda hurrying over to them. Glynda immediately pulls Salem into a tight loving hug when she reaches them, leaving Ruby very confused. 

"I thought for sure you would have spawned a Shadow Nevermore and flown off the airship, considering how much of a fuss you made about being a student here." Glynda tightens her hug a little bit. "But here you are!"

"Yes I am, mom." Salem says, gasping for air a little bit and deepening Ruby's confusion.

"I trust the flight over was okay?" Glynda asks, as she releases Salem from the hug.

"It was a little packed but it was nothing I couldn't handle."

"Are you sure?"

"Mom, it was only one time that happened and I much better control now."

"But I still worry that a random thing will spontaneously trigger another episode." 

"Isn't that the reason why you convinced me to become a huntress?"

Glynda chuckles in response with smile on her face as she accidentally elbows Ruby who has been awkwardly standing there, unsure what to make of what was happening. "You got me there."

When Ruby grunts at the elbowing, Glynda turns to face her in surprise and takes a moment to place a name to Ruby's face. "Oh my, Ms. Callows. Are you okay? I didn't see you there."

"I'm okay, Prof. Goodwitch."

"Actually it's Headmistress Pine." Glynda corrects, causing Ruby to stare at her for couple moments in disbelief. Glynda opens her mouth to reminisce by then she realizes something when she looks between Salem and Ruby. “How long have been here?"

"About a minute before you ran over."

A prideful expression appears on her face. "Oh look at you, Dorothy. You're already making new friends before the start of the school year!"

"Mom, we just met and-" Salem begins to say.

"Oh dear, it's almost time for the speech." Glynda suddenly announces after she checks her watch. "Well I'll see later, Dorothy." Glynda says as hurries towards the auditorium, not giving Salem a chance to finish what she was going to say. Ruby and Salem stand there unsure what to do as they try to process what they just learned.

"So... Prof. Goodwitch is your mom?" Ruby asks after a minute of silence.

"Yes she is and Ozpin is indeed my father." Salem replies. Ruby looks at her with very clear disbelief on her face. "So... about Tyrian..."

"Yes he is my dad but I'll have you know that he isn't crazy, he's just very eccentric" Ruby proudly says, causing Salem to raise an eyebrow.

"What about Sum-" Salem begins to ask with curiosity getting the best of her but Ruby interrupts her.

“You don't need to know that. Especially not after what you did in the previous life to her." Ruby quickly says, getting defensive. "I don't know what you have planned but Team RWBY will rise again and stop you."

Before Salem has a chance to respond to that, Ruby quickly turns around and runs away at a normal human pace without leaving any Rose petals behind. She is left standing there awkwardly, wondering what is going to happen throughout the school year.

With a sigh, she recomposes herself and quickly makes her way into the entrance hall of the auditorium. She arrives just as the lights begin to dim and moments later a woman who looks like Yang but with a black and red color scheme approaches the podium on the stage.

"Hello everyone. I am Professor Raven Xiao Long the combat instructor and I would like welcome all of you to what is sure to be an exciting year at Beacon Academy!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character Introductions:
> 
> Introducing Ruby Rose as Ruby Callows the scorpion Faunus who also reincarnated into this version of Remnant and is the proud daughter of Tyrian and Summer Rose. 
> 
> Introducing Ozpin as Oscar ‘Ozpin’ Pine: Salem’s father, Glynda’s husband, and the owner of the Emerald City Coffee shop.
> 
> Introducing Glynda Goodwitch as Glynda Pine: Salem’s mother, Ozpin’s wife, and headmistress of Beacon Academy.
> 
> Introducing Raven Branwen as Raven Xiao Long: The combat instructor at Beacon Academy, mother of Yang Xiao Long who possibly may have stayed with Taiyang.


	3. Of Partners...

** Chapter 3: Of Partners… **

 

Early the next morning after a surprisingly long assembly and an unexpected delay with the Initiation Exam, Salem peacefully slumbers away in her makeshift bed, awaiting for time to wake up to arrive. As Salem sleeps, something on top of her suddenly begins licking her face along with jumping up and down on her chest. Opening her eyes slightly, Salem discovers the corgi Grimm she spawned the previous night as an alarm clock, standing on her chest with an eager look on its face and its tongue sticking out.

 

Smirking at the sight, she gives it a thankful pat on the head and gives it a couple scratches behind the ears before having it melt back into her shadow. Groggily sitting up, reveals a large noticeable tent in the pajama bottoms that she’s wearing followed the various sound of multiple people sleeping around her which makes her quickly realize that she is in the ballroom that the Beacon staff hastily setup the previous day. Quickly covering up her erection, she scrambles to stand up quietly as possible before anyone notices and starts talking behind her back and starting malicious rumors again. But thanks to the rapid shift in weight, her body announces to her that she has a full bladder that is ready to burst.

 

Rushing into the nearest bathroom and quickly barricading herself into the nearest stall, she feels relief as she drains her bladder into the toilet. As this is happening, someone slams open the restroom door and walks in followed by a familiar voice grumbling about something. When Salem is done relieving herself, she stands and peeks over the stall to discover Ruby grumbling to herself about Blake and Weiss as she prepares to brush her teeth.

 

Deciding it is too early in the morning for a confrontation, Salem waits on the toilet without flushing for Ruby to finish her business. A couple minutes, Ruby finishes then leaves the restroom, allowing Salem to finish her own business unseen. Once out of the restroom, Salem retrieves her overnight that has a change of clothes then returns to the restroom to get changed and to go through her usual morning routine.

 

Wearing the same outfit from the previous day with the exception of wearing a short sleeved button instead of a long sleeved shirt and forgoing the tie, Salem heads towards the cafeteria for an early breakfast. When she reaches the hallway outside the classroom, she discovers Ruby sitting in the hallway already as she studies a large binder while her tail rests lazily on the bench she sits on. Still deciding that it is too early for another confrontation, Salem sneaks out and takes an alternate route to the cafeteria.

 

After a short, quiet map assisted journey, Salem arrives at her destination only to find it block d off by signs stating that the cafeteria is closed for breakfast preparations. Inside the cafeteria, she sees various kitchen staff members moving about preparing a buffet and are being led by a man with long black hair and singular stripe of pink hair. She think she recognizes the familiar man but is not sure because he looks a lot older than the person she is thinking off.

 

"Excuse me, miss." A female voice says from behind Salem, startling her. "What are you doing?"

 

Turning around, Salem discovers Nora Valkyrie, who looks older than she expected and is wearing a Campus Security uniform, standing there with a concerned look on her face. "Hoping to get an early breakfast but sadly the cafeteria isn't open yet."

 

"Ah okay." Nora replies. "I thought you were going to be greedy and try disrupt my husband's work by breaking in and demanding food."

 

Salem gives Nora an incredulous look. "Uh... what?"

 

"You'd be surprised how many new students from wealthy and/or privileged families that come here, think they have the run of the because of their status." Nora sighs, shaking her head. "Such a pain every year."

 

"Uh huh." Salem simply says in response.

 

"Anyways, the student run cafe we have on campus that is usually open for these sort situations is closed until the school year officially starts." Nora explains before looking into the cafeteria. "But it looks like my husband, Ren, and his team are nearly done setting up breakfast."

 

"I guess I'll wait nearby." Salem says, excusing herself in the process.

 

"Much appreciated, ma'am." Nora says, nodding a thank you before they both begin to head in different directions. Salem heads over to a nearby bench and sits down before pulling her scroll to pass the time.

 

A few minutes go by with nothing happening other than a couple instances of Salem getting frustrated at the deceptively hard scroll game she's playing to pass time when she catches sight of Ruby out the corner of her eye. Turning her attention towards Ruby, she sees the scorpion Faunus approach the cafeteria only to be intercepted by Nora. A look of recognition and confusion appears on Ruby’s face as Nora presumably gives Ruby the same speech she gave her.

 

Soon Ruby and Nora separate and Ruby heads over to a nearby bench with a really confused look on her face which makes Salem assume that she is trying to process what just happened. A short while and several not-so-subtle glares later from Ruby later, Nora announces that the cafeteria is now open which prompts Ruby, Salem, and anyone else who managed to wake up beforehand to make their way into the cafeteria towards the very delicious looking buffet prepared by Ren and his team of chefs.

 

After lining up and getting a tray full of delicious looking breakfast, Salem heads to the table that is has the best view of the doors coming in to get a basic idea for whom might be her partner and possibly on her team. But when she approaches the table, she sees that Ruby had the same idea as she does based on the number of times Ruby has looked up from her meal since she spotted her. Not wanting to engage in another hostile encounter with Ruby, Salem chooses instead to sit at the table behind Ruby.

 

As she slowly eats her very delicious food, people from the ballroom quickly filter into the cafeteria. Getting a somewhat good look at their faces, Salem doesn’t recognize most of them but the ones she does recognize are the ones she remembers from the profiles that Old World Cinder sent her during her infiltration of the Old World Beacon Academy. Turning her away from the other potential students and the doors, she discovers a frantic Ruby anxiously looking around the cafeteria for who Salem assumes are Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. Looking around the cafeteria herself for the aforementioned individuals, Salem curiously doesn’t find them amongst the crowd either. Unfortunately though, her scanning of the room is cut short when her mother makes an announcement over the PA system ordering all potential students to head to locker rooms to retrieve their weapons and armor for the Initiation Exam.

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Salem sees Ruby perk up at the announcement then jumping out her seat, quickly disposing of her trash, and rushing off towards the locker rooms. Almost fore anyone else has left the cafeteria for the locker rooms. Salem leisurely takes her time doing the same routine and a few minutes later, she arrives at the entrance to the locker rooms to find Ruby waiting just outside the door with hopeful expression on her face. But as soon as their eyes meet, Ruby scowls at her and turns to quickly head into the locker room before Salem has chance to say anything. Salem sighs and sags her shoulders hoping that she will get chance to earn Ruby’s trust sometime within this year.

 

Inside the locker room, Salem finds it a little too crowded for her liking but she bites the bullet and begins making her way through the crowd very cautiously to avoid people accidentally finding out about her rather large male genitalia and reacting poorly to it. As she makes her way towards her assigned locker, Salem finds that she is unintentionally following Ruby as she tries to find her locker as well. A minute of following Ruby later, Ruby stops next to a locker and opens it followed by Salem finding out her assigned locker is right next to Ruby’s locker.

 

“Why are you following me?” Ruby asks, eyeing Salem warily as Salem pulls out a piece of paper with her locker combination on it.

 

“It wasn’t my intention to do so but it seems this universe has other ideas.” Salem points out as she gets the locker open on the first try.

 

“Uh-huh.” Ruby simply says as she pulls out a sheathed katana with revolver cylinder filled with cartridges of different types of Dust crystals and a blooming rose emblem on the sheath. Ruby also pulls out a small kite shield that has a gun barrel sticking out the pointed end of the shield, and has a scattering rose emblem on outward facing side of the shield.

 

Feeling awkward, Salem turns back to her own locker and pulls out a wrapped up bundle containing a utility belt, a pair of arm guards, a pair of shin guards, and a front half of gunmetal gray metal cuirass. Quickly putting on the armor and utility belt over her clothes, Salem also pulls out Witch’s Boom-stick in its collapsed form and a well-worn drooping wide-brim witch hat.

 

“Will all candidates report to the cliff side overlooking the Emerald Forest.” Professor Raven Xiao Long announces over the PA system. “I repeat: Will all examinees report to the cliff side overlooking the Emerald Forest. The way to the cliffs are clearly marked by signs showing the way.”

 

Prompted by the announcement, most of everyone in the locker room begins to slowly make their way towards the exits. Salem clips Witch’s Boom-stick onto her utility belt and looks up in time to see Ruby struggling a little bit with peeling a thick black condom off of her scorpion stinger that blends in really well with the chitin of her tail. Salem raises an eyebrow at this but shrugs it off in order to head for the exit to the cliffs. A few minutes of following obnoxiously large signs and everyone else, Salem arrives at the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest and finds her mother, Raven, and a ginger haired teenager, whom she recognizes as Penny Polendina from OW Cinder’s reports, waiting for the candidates next to several rows of platforms.

 

Glynda thoroughly scans the crowd of candidates and does a subtle fist pump when she finds that all of the candidates are indeed there and that none of them got lost along the way like the previous few years. Clearing her throat, she begins the obligatory explanation of the Initiation Exam rules.

 

“Good Morning, everyone and welcome to the Beacon Academy Initiation Exam. The goal of this exam is to determine who will be attending for the four years as well as who is going to be on your team and who is going your partner.” She explains. Several candidates raise their hands to ask a question but Glynda continues on, ignoring them.

 

“The exam is simple. After launching all of you into random spots within the forest, you will need to make your way back to the cliffs and survive the Grimm that are still left in the forest after the extermination that was done in preparation for this exam. But to do so, you must seek out and meet up with another person for they will be you partner for the next 4 years.” Several of the raised hands drop. “What determines who your partner is going to be is simple: the first person you make eye contact with and acknowledge, will be your partner. So that means hiding in a bush and looking at someone from afar does not count.” This information causes a couple more hands to drop.

 

Glynda takes a moment to catch her breath before continuing on. “How your teams are determined is slightly different than how partners are determined. As you and your partner make your way towards the cliffs, the first pair of partners meet and acknowledge will become the other half of the 4 person team that you will assigned to for the next for years. So when you do meet up with another pair, PLEASE be sure to CLEARLY make it known that you and your partner have not found another pair or have been separated from your other teammates.”

 

Glynda takes another moment to catch her breath as more hands drop down. “Your progress through the forest will closely monitored by Professor Raven Xiao Long, Professor Penelope Polendina, and I. If we catch you purposely hindering another candidate or any other malicious behavior to gain any sort of advantage, you will be disqualified then punished based severity of the offense.

 

Also if you suffer an injury that takes a month or more to heal or suffer a career ending injury or you reach the cliffs without attempting to find a partner, I am sorry but you will be disqualified as our curriculum at Beacon Academy REQUIRES effort from the entire team, especially during the first few months of the school year.

 

If anyone make it to cliffs and showed non-disqualifying behavior throughout the exam but wasn’t able to find a partner or another pair to make a full team, you will not be disqualified but instead you placed on a team of our choosing based on what skills we saw you use and who we think best fits you as a partner and team.” Glynda says with confidence as all but one hand drops. ‘Not to mention the amount of time saved when we go to name the teams as well.’

 

“So what is your question, sir with his hand still raised?” Glynda asks, pointing the person in a complete set full plate knight armor who still has their hand raised.

 

“Wh-What happens if you guys don’t get to us in time and we uh... die?” The knight stutters with their voice muffled by his helmet.

 

“Every year this happens no matter what we do make things clear and understandable.” Glynda sighs underneath her breath in disappointment. She clasps a hand over her mouth as she takes a couple moments to decide that the direct approach is best. “Well unfortunately there is nothing we could other than retrieve your body and give your family and/or next of kin our condolences along with proper compensation for your untimely demise as stated in the waivers lol of you had sign. Now are there anymore question?”

 

A somber silence falls over the area everyone is standing in but when no else raises their hand, Glynda claps her hands together, eager to move onto the Initiation Exam. “Since there no more questions, can everyone please move on to one of launch platforms so we can begin the Initiation Exam and make sure that there is only one person per platform. Also the rules of the exam has sent to your scrolls if you need to review them in case you missed something but please do so when it is sad to do so.”

 

Some candidates nods their heads in agreement while others grumble discontent as they move on to a platform. Glynda moves next to an inconspicuous lever and puts hand on it while making there is one person per platform. Penny sits down at table laden with monitors as Raven takes a couple deep breaths to prepare herself for what comes next.

 

“Now that we are ready, good luck everyone and see all of you soon.” Glynda says once all of the platforms had someone on it before quietly adding “hopefully” underneath her breath with the hope that nothing too bad happens this year.

 

She looks over at Raven who nods that she is ready. Glynda pulls the lever launching a random candidate into the air followed quickly by Raven opening up a portal in front of said candidate with a snap of her fingers.

 

This goes for a few seconds when Salem gets launched into the air right into a swirling red portal and finds herself flying above the Emerald Forest a couple miles away from the cliffs a split second later, slightly disoriented. Quickly recovering from the disorientation, Salem spawns a refrigerator sized nevermore underneath her and quickly grabs ahold it. She positions and steadies herself on the Nevermore’s back to where she is riding it before scanning the forest below for a suitable landing.

 

“Not again, birdie!!!!!” A familiar voice yells out from behind Salem.

 

Salem turns her towards the direction of the voice in time to see a flailing Ruby fly into her like an anti-air missile. The impact forces her forward forcing her to grab onto the Nevermore’s left wing. At the same time at the moment of impact, Ruby rolls off to the right of where Salem was sitting, forcing her to grab onto the Nevermore’s belly feather in an effort to not fall off completely. Unfortunately though, the impact and the sudden change in weight causes the nevermore to begin drifting down towards the forest as it struggles to maintain altitude.

 

As the nevermore drifts downwards, Salem crawls back onto the Nevermore’s back in an attempt to regain control. But Ruby loses her grip on the feathers and she plunges her stinger into the side of the nevermore in a desperate attempt to keep herself from flying off before desperately latching onto the Nevermore’s tail a second later. The nevermore cries out in pain and starts plummeting as Ruby’s poison spread throughout its body causing Salem and Ruby to curse underneath their breaths at the sudden turn of events. They hold onto the slowly dissolving nevermore for dear life as the nevermore rockets toward the dense forest before throwing Ruby and Salem off its body when it slams head first into the ground.

 

Being thrown from the crash landing knocks Ruby and Salem out momentarily as they skid across the ground a couple feet. Salem wakes up first to find herself flat on her back and an unconscious Ruby lying face down her chest along with the Nevermore quickly dissolving into a cloud of thick black smoke. When Ruby wakes up a couple seconds later, she finds herself in a compromising position when tries to push herself off what she thinks is incredibly soft ground as surprised gold eyes meets nervous blue-green eyes.

 

“So... I guess this means we’re partners?” Salem rhetorically asks with a nervous chuckle, ignoring the fact that Ruby’s hands are pressing into her breasts and that she is unknowingly straddling her.

 

“Yes... yes it does.” Ruby sighs, hanging her head.

 

They awkwardly remain in their positions for couple of moments when Salem clears her throat to get Ruby’s attention. “I believe that we still have an initiation exam to complete. So can get off me, please?”

 

Ruby blinks at Salem before looking down to fully realize the position she is in, causing her to blush profusely as she scrambles off of Salem. Salem chuckles as she stand up but quickly when the pointed look Ruby is giving her. Looking away from Salem, Ruby pats herself down to find out that her katana, Bloom, is still sheathed on her back, her gun-shield, Scatter, is still strapped to her left arm, and that all of her spare ammo plus the spare dust cylinders are still secured in her ammo pouches. Meanwhile, Salem is also patting herself down as well sure that all of her ammo and Witch’s Boom-stick are still secured to her utility belt but quickly finds that her hat is missing.

 

Salem huffs at the loss of her hat before turning her attention to Ruby. “Ruby, do you have all your equipment?”

 

“Yeah.” Ruby replies as the reality of the situation sinks in.

 

“That makes one of us.” Salem says mostly to herself.

 

Salem and Ruby look around the heavily wooded crash site out of sync with each other to gain their bearings. But thanks to the thick canopy of trees, they don’t succeed. This prompts Salem to spawn a plushy sized Griffon Grimm from her shadow and has it quickly fly up over the trees to get a better look of where they are at. Ruby gives Salem a wary glare that Salem ignores as she sees through the griffon’s eyes. Salem sees where Ruby and she are in relation to where Beacon Academy along finding her hat resting on top of a nearby tree. Directing the griffon to retrieve her hat then disconnecting herself from it, Salem blinks a few times reorient herself with her own eyesight and finds Ruby still maintaining her wary glare.

 

Ruby hunches over and grips Bloom’s sword grip with her left hand when Salem looks at her. “Of all things your semblance could have been, it has to be that?”

 

“Well, beggars can’t be choosers.” Salem grumbles as she looks away with shame. “No matter how much wishful thinking is involved.”

 

“Uh huh, sure.” Ruby warily says after raising an eyebrow, clearly not expecting that what Salem said but she continues to maintain her stance.

 

Suddenly, the griffon glides down from the tree tops towards Salem with Salem’s hat in its beak causing Ruby to tense up slightly. Salem crouches down and takes her hat from the griffon when it lands in front of her. Ruby relaxes her stance slightly when the griffon melts into Salem’s shadow as Salem stands up.

 

“Well... uh... the cliffs are in that direction and we’re about a couple miles away.” Salem nervously announces, pointing her thumb in the direction of the cliffs.

 

Ruby relaxes her stance but keeps her left hand resting on Bloom’s sword grip as she heads in the direction Salem indicated. Salem follows Ruby but when Ruby splits a bush in half to create a path, she accidentally reveals a crawling mecha-Beowolf getting ready to ambush Ruby and Salem.

 

“Oh shit!” Ruby audibly cusses as she instinctively backpedals away a couple steps before raising Scatter and firing off a small burst into the mecha-Beowolf, momentarily stunning it.

 

Seeing Ruby backpedal and fire into the bush she split in two, she unclips Witch’s Boom-stick and fully expands it into its spear form as multiple mecha-Beowolves rise from bushes all around them. The wounded mecha-beowolf recovers and takes a swipe at Ruby but luckily she draws Bloom from its sheath in time to block the swipe which is quickly followed by Ruby slicing off the mecha-Beowolf’s fingers/claws as she drags the blade across the paw. She quickly follows up with an upwards stab through the bottom of the mecha-Bewolf’s skull, killing it instantly. But as she backs away to avoid the falling corpse, Ruby sees three more mecha-Beowolves approach her from the side and she rotates Bloom’s cylinder until the Fire Dust is clicked in the firing, lighting the blade aflame.

 

Seeing the three mecha-Beowolves approach Ruby, Salem concentrates her semblance into ball on top of the spearhead and slams the other end into the ground, releasing a murder of Nevermores from the ball to fly into the three mecha-Beowolves that are approaching Ruby from the side. Most of the nevermore’s hit a mecha-Beowolf and explode upon penetration while the rest simply fade back into the shadows. She then takes a moment to survey the surroundings for her next target.

 

After seeing Salem save her, Ruby quickly shoots Salem a confused yet appreciative look but notices two more mecha-Beowolves getting ready to leap into Salem from behind. Gritting her teeth at the decision she’s about to make, she yells out, “Get down!”

 

Ruby swings Bloom through in Salem’s direction while holding down Bloom’s trigger which launched a crescent shaped wave of fire into the air. Salem sees the wave flying towards her and immediately dives onto the in time to the wave fly over to hit the two leaping mecha-Beowolves she didn’t realize were behind her, knock them backwards, lighting them on fire.

“Thank you!” Salem yells as she gets off the ground and finishes of the two fallen mecha-Beowolves with a couple of quick flurries of stabs.

 

Ruby simply nods in response before rotating Bloom’s cylinder once again to load Ice Dust into the firing chamber, dousing the flames and covering the blade in ice thus turning Bloom into an ice covered serrated katana. Two more mecha-Beowolves and a much larger, more heavily armored mecha-Beowolf that looks more machine than a bipedal black and white wolf, stalk into the clearing.

 

“And there’s the Commander.” Ruby says aloud, alerting Salem to the newcomers.

 

Salem shifts her stance to where she is holding Witch’s Boom-stick as spear with both hands while Ruby turns towards the three mecha-Grimm in a ready-to-attack stance. The mecha-Beowolf Commander order the two mecha-Beowolves to attack with a couple nods of its head while it stays back to watch.

 

As one of the remaining mecha-Beolves charges Salem, she swings Witch’s Boom-stick upwards and spawns a Boarbatusk Grimm from the shadow underneath. The spear tip catches the mecha-Beowolf in the right shoulder, stopping it in its track as the Boarbatusk charges into its legs causing the mecha-Beowolf to fall onto its face before the Boarbatusk melts back into its own shadow. At the same time, Salem lifts Witch’s Boom-stick upwards as the mecha-Beowulf falls, nearly separating the right arm from the body before slamming the shotgun end onto the top of the mecha-Beowolf’s head and pulls the trigger which ends its life.

 

At the same time with the other mecha-Beowolf, Ruby blocks a downwards swipe with Scatter then follows up with a horizontal slice across the chest and a long burst of bullets from Scatter into the chest wound, killing it. The two of them quickly ready themselves again and warily approach the mecha-Beowolf Commander as Ruby reloads Scatter. As Ruby and Salem approach, the mecha-Beowolf Commander eyes the two of them warily as it hunches over defensively.

 

Seeing this, Ruby charges forward and unleashes a flurry of slashes into the left side but most of the slashes uselessly scrape against the armor, grinding down the icy teeth of the serrated blade. Ruby quickly shields herself with Scatter and quickly retreats as the commander takes a couple retaliatory swipes at her. Salem enters the fray with a quick flurry of a couple stabs to draw the commander’s attention away from Ruby and the commander quickly turns on a dime towards Salem then begins attacking her.

 

As Salem begins ducking, weaving, and blocking with her weapon or a quickly spawned wall of shadow when she can and as best she can, Ruby uses the opportunity to click the lightning Dust into Bloom’s firing chamber, electrifying the now ice free blade and she begins looking for weak spots in the commander’s armor. After a couple moments of looking, Ruby spots a lack of armor around the armpit area and charges forward to left side of the commander with Bloom ready to strike.

 

When she gets into striking distance, Ruby slashes upward across the commander’s armpit, momentarily stunning it followed by a couple of stabs with her stinger to the commander’s left eye. The attack cause the commander to stumble to the right a little bit, stopping it’s attack and allowing Salem to flip Witch’s Boom-stick then fire off a few shotgun blasts into its chest. The half blinded commander swipes blindly at them, forcing Salem and Ruby to back away.

 

“Can your katana release its flames inside of things?” Salem asks, thinking of a plan.

 

“Only if you can restrain it.” Ruby replies.

 

“That I can do.” Salem responds with a smirk.

 

Ruby quickly clicks in the Fire Dust into Bloom’s firing and prepares to strike as Salem concentrates her semblance in the shadows surrounding the mecha-Beowolf Commander. Half a minute later, Salem activates her semblance and six pairs of Nucklevee Grimm hands erupt from the shadows, easily restraining the commander. Ruby immediately springs into action, charging the commander then sheathing Bloom in its body via the left armpit area and holding the trigger, melting the commander from the inside out.

 

After about half a minute later, the commander goes limp and immediately begins dissolving into a cloud of transparent gray cubes that rise towards the then suddenly disappear as soon as Ruby removes Bloom from its body. Ruby slightly shifts Bloom’s cylinder to where it is in between the Dust cartridges, dousing the on fire blade as Salem spawns another plushy sized Griffon to scout the area in order to regain their bearings.

 

As Salem waits for the Griffon to return, they put away their weapons and relax a little bit to recover some of their expended energy. Salem wants to make small talk but she finds the atmosphere too awkward to start a conversation with Ruby. So instead, she concentrates on looking through her shared vision with the Griffon and quickly finds the direction they need to head in.

 

“Okay! Let’s try this again.” Salem awkwardly announces, clapping her hands together and earning an eye roll from Ruby before they both head towards the Beacon cliffs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters Introduced:
> 
> Nora Valkyrie as Mrs. Nora Valkyrie, the enthusiastic senior campus security guard and Lie Ren’s very loving wife.
> 
> Lie Ren as Mr. Lie Ren, the proud stoic head chef of the Beacon Academy cafeteria and loving husband of Nora Valkyrie.
> 
> Penny Polendina as Penelope “Penny” Polendina, the very eager professor of the Grimm Engineering courses.

**Author's Note:**

> Introducing Salem as Dorothy ‘Salem’ Pine the reincarnated main character.


End file.
